Northern Sun D2 College Baseball Poll – 3/24/09

There’s a new #1 Division 2 College Baseball team according to this week’s Northern Sun College Baseball D2 Composite Poll.

Grand Valley State has overtaken Southern Arkansas for the #1 spot in this week’s ranking taking over from the Muleriders who had led for the past 3 weeks.  Grand Valley State becomes just the 2nd team to ever be in the #1 position on the NSB poll which began in 2009 by combining the 3 major Division 2 college baseball polls into 1 composite ranking.

We are finally starting to see a little more stability in the rankings of the top 8 or so teams.  Previous weeks had seen wide variances in the opinions of the 3 polls.  That said, there is still a lot of differences once you get past the top 8. 

The Northern Sun Conference had 2 teams receive votes this week.  Wayne State received a Top 30 ranking in 2 of the 3 polls but not enough votes to crack the combined NSB Top 30.  St. Cloud State also received votes in the NSBWA Top 30.

Others Receiving Votes –

UMass – Lowell 12, Cal. St. Stanislaus 11, Columbus State 10, Cameron 9, Wayne State (NE) 9, Ouachita Baptist 9, Pfeiffer 7, Valdosta State 5, Hawaii Pacific 5, California (PA) 3, St. Cloud State 2, Francis Marion 2, Indianapolis 2

CBN – College Baseball News; Ping – Ping!Baseball; NCBWA – National College Baseball Writers Association; NSB Rank – Northern Sun Baseball Composite Poll; Comb Pts – Combined points in the composite rankings; LW – Last week’s composite ranking

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Tracking Top Minnesota H.S. 2008 Baseball Players

Minnesota high schools had a bumper crop of excellent baseball players that graduated in 2008 and I thought I’d look to see how some of the best are faring now in college. 

• Madison Boer was a 2008 graduate of Eden Prairie (MN) High School where he had much success and was named a first team all-state pitcher.  He went on to help reestablish baseball at Oregon University who was re-instating their baseball program after a 28 year break in playing.  The big right hander (6-4, 220) has quickly established himself as one of the Ducks 4 starting pitchers.  He is 1-3 on the season but sports a respectable 3.81 ERA.  He has the lowest batting average against him (.228) of any of their starters and holds the only 2 complete games thrown by Oregon pitchers all year.  Boer Gets First Collegiate Win
• Joe Loftus headed to play for a premier Division 1 program at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN which plays in college baseball toughest conference (the SEC).  The 2008 graduate of the Academy of Holy Angels was a 2 time, first team all-state selection.  Midway through their non-conference schedule, Loftus has earned a spot as the starting left fielder.  While he’s only hitting .240 on the season it’s pretty impressive to be starting as a freshman in the SEC.  Loftus Contributes to Win Over Kentucky
• Jacob Esch is playing for Georgia Tech of the ACC – a team that’s currently rated as the #3 overall team in Division 1 college baseball.  As a pitcher/shortstop at Cretin-Derham Hall he helped lead the Raiders to a state title and was named a 2 time all-state selection.  He had an injury this fall which delayed his development but the right handed pitcher has gotten in a few games as a relief pitcher for the Yellow Jackets.  Jackets Down Mercer
• The 2008 Player of the Year in Minnesota was Brad Hand of Chaska, MN.  The left handed pitcher was dominating in high school and while he had a college scholarship to a premier Division 1 program (Arizona State) he turned that down and turned pro after being drafted in the 2nd round by the Florida Marlins.  He had turned pro in time to start the summer of 2008 at the Marlins rookie league team where he went 2-0 with a 2.48 ERA before being promoted to a Class A team in New York where he was 1-2 with a 3.00 ERA.  Brad Hand Minor League Stats  He seems to have a bright future in baseball as John Sickels (who is a main writer for Baseball America) named Hand the 16th best prospect in the entire Florida Marlins farm system.  Sickels (a Twins fan) had this to say about Hand “Young projectable lefty from Minnesota, I wish the Twins had been able to draft him. Will need time but a fresh high school arm worth tracking.”  Florida Marlins Top 20 Prospects for 2009